


Interns

by concreteflour



Series: Guess What?  Parker IS an Intern. [3]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Interns & Internships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-29 23:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15739578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concreteflour/pseuds/concreteflour
Summary: Michelle and Ned see some of the work that Peter does, because they have their own.  All three are Interns at Stark Industries.





	Interns

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation from my story "The Tour". You don't have to read that first, but it would explain why they're there at all. I do appreciate any and all comments. I hope you enjoy.

Ned couldn’t believe it! He was going to be a Stark Intern, just like Peter, okay, maybe not just like Peter, he had those other parts of the job. After he had gotten home from the tour, he had been unable to respond to his parents, almost to the point that they were going to take him to the hospital. And he just kept nodding his head. Something had to be wrong! But it was cleared up quickly when Tony Stark, himself, called to explain his offer of an internship to Ned’s parents. 

Michelle wasn’t quite as dramatic about it. In fact, she hadn’t mentioned it to her parents yet when Pepper Potts called to talk to her parents. They were noticeably affected, both with surprise and concern, but the benefits outweighed their worries and they also agreed to the internship.

Both Ned and MJ needed to get Midtown to sign off on the internship, since they were minors. Peter also caught his paperwork up with the school at this point, possibly preventing any problems in the future. Although, it would have been impossible to find anyone connected to the school who didn’t believe that Peter Parker was an intern for Tony Stark now.

After three weeks of internship at Stark Industries, both Ned and MJ understood why Peter was always so tired. It wasn’t just the work at the Tower, but as new Interns, they had homework, lots and lots of homework. They had employee rules to follow, schedules to memorize, and other dreary things that all new employees learn.

Ned’s individual homework mostly consisted of coding examples, both mistakes and new ideas for him to add to his knowledge base. He was overwhelmed but happy. He fell asleep every night with reams of printouts of code on his chest.

MJ had homework that challenged even her prodigious reading ability. She was given stacks of Stark Industries official Reports, Position Statements, and Operational Memo’s to read through and analyze. Her job was going to be an analyst to see that SI was truly on the path to help the “little man” or those unable to help themselves. Since Tony had taken SI away from weapons manufacturing, they had morphed into the largest clean energy company in the world. Additionally, the work by Dr. Cho, and Bruce Banner (with some help by Peter) had brought forth many new healthcare ideas, which also was starting to help millions of people.

The two new interns spent at least one evening at the tower and usually Friday night into Saturday. They were invited up to be with Peter for movie nights or parties. Pepper had pulled Tony aside and quietly informed him that MJ was aware of Peter’s “other” internship. To Tony’s credit, he didn’t explode, and actually took the news calmly. It was even his idea to confer with Natasha about the problem. Those two went in search of Natasha, and brought her up to speed. She was not surprised. Natasha had, long before, completed an intensive background search on everyone in Peter’s life. That was one reason she was so willing to trounce on that a-hole Flash Thompson. (1) She informed Tony and Pepper that she had already thought that MJ was onto Peter’s secret. She also was impressed by MJ because she had been one of a very small group of people to ever detect that Natasha was following them. 

The three of them decided not to tell Peter. Natasha believed that MJ didn’t want Peter to know she knew, and for some of the same reasons he didn’t want others to know. Natasha believed that MJ didn’t want Peter to worry about her. 

“Teenagers!” Tony exclaimed. “They are supposed to be lazy and selfish. Why am I running into ones that want to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders?”

It was almost three months into the new internships that MJ first noticed a problem. Some of the accepted copies of the Stark paperwork did not exactly match the public versions. She noticed very slight differences, maybe one word in two thousand. She poured over the texts to identify the changes and see what they were. In doing so she noticed that the meanings of subtle paragraphs were altered slightly. Perplexed, she mentioned it to Peter and Ned the next day at lunch.

Ned has also found inconsistencies in the work he was doing. He noted that the same topics from which MJ had noticed a difference were the same areas he noticed differences in the programming associated with the systems he had reviewed. For once they had Peter flummoxed, but his specialty was the science aspects. He however did trust his friends and promised to help them bring up the problem. MJ demanded that it be done professionally, and she and Ned worked to prepare a presentation on the discrepancies. 

It took the three of them a week to bring all the information together. They completed the task in Peter’s lab, because he had the best AI to help with the presentation. Peter requested that Ms. Potts (he couldn’t call her Pepper when she was in her official role) allocate them some time for a meeting. She was very happy to schedule time in the evening on their normal day at the tower.

Exactly four minutes into the meeting, she called a halt and had Friday get Tony, her assistant, and the head of security into the meeting as well. 

A very few minutes later had a very agitated Pepper Potts directing everyone to sit down and listen to the sixteen-year-olds. MJ started by explaining the differences in the paperwork. 

“How can you spot one word of difference?” Lionel Atwater, the Head of Security, asked.

“When I read, I see the words as numbers, and the sentences as sets. When words flow, like poetry, the numbers rhyme as well as the words. I also automatically do word counts as I go, because any good writing needs a meter to compare itself to.”

Tony spoke up, “Many good musicians are excellent at math because the tempo and order of the music is similar to the numbers. I have heard that architects can sometimes “hear” their creations. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a writer or poet with the same ability.”

It got more detailed as she noted the exact changes and the subtle differences the changes had made. In one contract, the word “not” changed the priority of the contracting for outside suppliers. In another the word “and” added a fiscal responsibility for Stark Industries for insuring the project. In all, MJ noted twenty-seven instances of contracts or position statements with adjusted wording.

That led to Ned, and his presentation of associated changes to specific coding to programs covered by the paperwork that MJ had just reviewed. In each instance, a minor change to the code had altered a bank account number or scheduled a payment outside the normal routes. Going back over the last six months, they had already found over Ten Million Dollars of re-routed funds.

By the next morning, a team of actuaries was combing through the Stark Industries accounts. Teams of investigators were looking through the personal accounts of everyone that could have been in a position to perform the changes. 

Three hours into the process, the first suspect was brought in front of Lionel Atwater. She was a technical writer, from the contracts division. She had made the mistake of putting a large enough deposit on a brownstone in the village to be noticed in the paper. That led to a trail of other money that was poorly hidden. Pepper Potts stormed into the room full of righteous indignation.

The poor fool later swore that Pepper Potts actually glowed red with anger, and she could feel the intense heat of the CEO of the company as she questioned her. She was too scared to even come up with a decent lie. She gave up her accomplice, a programmer, within minutes.

The programmer was not found in the building. Friday announced his badge was checked as leaving the building late that morning. Lionel Atwater notified the police, and the put out a BOLO on him (Be On the LookOut).

The programmer was found by three young friends leaving Midtown School of Science and Technology. 

Peter’s spider sense went crazy as a stranger stepped away from the wall outside the building. He immediately moved in front of his friends and herded them in another direction.

“You! You damn kids have ruined everything! You had to come in and destroy everything we had done. Just because you’re smarter!” The stranger pulled out a gun.

Then the screams began, as other students noticed the situation developing in front of them.

Peter was trying to push both Ned and MJ out of the way. If he was able to get out of the direct line of fire, he might be able to stop the crazy man in front of him. But even as Peter was pushing his friends one way, the stranger was starting his advance.

Suddenly, there came another scream, as Peter watched the gun fly out of the stranger’s hand as a bat crushed the forearm that had been holding it. Just as quickly, the scream stopped as the bat continued in an arc ending shortly after contact with the stranger’s head.

“Way to go, Principal Morita!” yelled Peter, and he was quickly joined by several other students. Peter for the first time, saw the man in front of him not as the Principal, but the grandson of one of the Howling Commandos, and one of Steve Rogers friends.

The two employees were arrested and quietly confessed their crimes. The money that was recovered was given to Midtown in the form of scholarships, and Tony Stark personally help improve the security for the school and grounds.

Pepper Potts announced a program of special internships to the outstanding high school students of Midtown School of Science and Technology. Stark Industries would permanently recruit the best of the school’s students for early training. Along with the internship came a scholarship to the college of the student’s choice (though MIT was preferred by Tony)

Also in the mix was a new office for the principal, work had begun to not only enlarge the office, but all new furniture and equipment was brought in.

Peter and his two friends were taking a break from their Friday night routine. Just like at school, they were in a quiet corner of the cafeteria. Here though, it was because they were too popular. Peter was a rock star to the scientists, and MJ and Ned were known to everyone else.

“Losers”. MJ started, “Even here you need to be in a corner.”

“After last week, I am suddenly afraid of people,” Ned said.

“Come on, Peter started getting us out of the way before we even knew anything was going on. In another five seconds he would have gotten us out of the line of fire and creamed that sucker.”

“MJ, I was just trying to avoid the crowd,” Peter stammered.

“When we were the first one’s out of the building? I notice things remember? I have known for quite a while. I told Pepper Potts I knew before I became an intern. Didn’t they tell you?”

“What the Fu-”

(1) See my story Flash and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Sorry, just a plug!


End file.
